


No Body No Crime

by DistractedDaydreamer



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling, Tortall - Tamora Pierce
Genre: Fanfiction of Fanfiction, Gen, Inspired by The Rigel Black Chronicles, Rigel Black Chronicles Masquerade 2021
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-07
Updated: 2021-02-07
Packaged: 2021-03-12 06:14:39
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,242
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29255781
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DistractedDaydreamer/pseuds/DistractedDaydreamer
Summary: Harry makes a different decision on the podium. Echoes ripple.Diverges during FF13.  Some dialogue is lifted; if you recognise it,  it's not mine.
Comments: 26
Kudos: 82
Collections: Rigel Black Chronicles Masquerade 2021





	No Body No Crime

**Author's Note:**

> I apologise for: the wrong use of semicolons, inconsistent spacing, double spacing most sentences, four dot ellipses, and any other errors deliberate and accidental. This was written on mobile for the RBC masq, and I am preserving the chaos in its original form. You have been Warned.

_“Bad idea to use a … signature sensitive ritual. So_ delicate _, aren’t they?”_

Voldemort took up Rigel’s wand and triumphantly flourished it. Again, only feeble sparks emerged. Nothing about this situation was funny, and every muscle in her body ached, and in mortal danger, but Harry grinned despite it as he tossed the wand to the side. The seventeen-year-old boy she remembered from the chamber turned to her, Riddle’s features contorted with rage, as he demanded whose blood it was. 

_“Not mine,”_ she choked out, through a throat sore from her scream earlier. She took deep breaths, trying to force strength back into her aching limbs, trying to expand her awareness outwards to prepare. 

She saw Barty Crouch coming towards her to cut an arm free, and she --

Breathed --

Felt the bindings loosen --

Reached for Crouch’s knife, grasping and twisting its momentum so it drove into his stomach.

She panted, watching him stagger away. Intestinal wounds were dangerous. They were prone to infection if a skilled healer wasn’t on hand. His blood dripped off the knife, and she just watched it drip for a moment as Voldemort howled with rage and pulled the other man (the man she might have _killed)_ away from the array.

  
That was an idea. 

_“Cut yourself free!”_ hissed Dom in her mind. 

That was another idea. 

In another universe, Rigel might have broken the ritual by flinging Crouch’s blood into the circle. 

In this universe, Rigel cuts her bonds and rushes towards the magical attractant, near voldemort. If she can just get to it-

But the masked man is too fast. He twisted his wand, and she felt her legs lock in a familiar spell as she falls backwards. She dropped the knife - and Jordan, who is closest to her, picked it up. 

He grins at her, something deranged in his eyes, and shoves the blade into her thigh. 

She screamed again. The pain was excruciating. He pulled out the knife, and one arm came up to cradle her thigh, trying to put pressure on it and stop the bleeding even as her magic circulated within her to numb the pain. Her other hand held the pedestal, which she was still pushing magic into.

She bided her time, monologuing through the pain, keeping herself together through sheer willpower. Dom defended her mind, and she came back to consciousness light-headed and woozy from bloodloss. She was almost on top of the magical attractant -- she dropped the pedestal, and tried to curl up away from it, pulling up a shield as it exploded. She stared, dazed, as her mother’s amulet saved her life.

Voldemort demanded Lee kill her, and pain made her clumsy as she rolled to her feet. His sharp weapon nicked her shoulder before she could take him down. Crouched on the ground, she made eye-contact with the inner wardstones that were trapping her, and pulled. When they finally broke, she thought: “ _I did it.”_

Then, she thought: “What now?”

She had no answer for herself. The apparition wards were down. She should go, shouldn’t she?

A hand rested on her shoulder. She turned, looking up into Gavril’s face. “Halfblood,” said the vampire. It was weird hearing the address, and acknowledging it as true. “Do you need to escape, and to heal?”

Maybe in another universe, Harry would have denied it. Run away. Covered up her loose ends. She had never been good at letting people help her. But she didn’t have any room for thoughts in her head, and she could hear Sirius shouting “Archie!”, and she just nodded. 

Gavril nodded back, lifted her body into his arms, and they spun away. 

  
  


Draco clutched at Pansy’s hand, feeling untethered and desperate. The emotions around him were running rampant - the edge of panic threatening to overwhelm him. Rigel was gone - taken by some unknown vampire, to Mithros knows where. What could he do? There was nothing. 

Beside him, Pansy was trembling. She held his hand as tightly as he was holding hers, taking deep breaths, trying to calm the riot of emotions coursing through herself. 

When she finally gathered herself, she said "He'll want his stuff." Her voice was more like a whisper, but the words were clearly articulated. 

"He'd never leave his potions kit behind, " agreed Draco. _But he wouldn't have had a choice_ , whispered a voice in his mind that he ruthlessly shut down. That was a direction. They could keep his stuff safe for him if he came back; maybe find some clue for how to find him. No, when he came back. 

The two of them pushed through the castle, rushing through the crowds, which cleared the closer they got to the castle. 

But when they opened the doors, they weren't the only one there. A figure with dark brown hair was methodically vanishing Rigel's bed sheets. 

"Aldon?!"

The figure stiffened, then turned around slowly. His eyes were guarded. 

"Draco. Pansy."

"What are you doing? Did you … did you know? " asked Draco. He could feel Pansy's face freeze in a facsimile of her usual composure. 

Aldon, on the other hand, scoffed. "Of course I didn't know. I wouldn't have pushed him so much for his secrets if I did. But what I do know is that the aurors are going to come looking for him, and even if he wasn't impersonating Sirius Black's son what he did is nothing less than a life sentence in Azkaban. And Rigel … whatever his name is … doesn't deserve that."

"Rigel can't be a halfblood, " said Draco, shaking his head. "This has to be some kind of misunderstanding …. "

Aldon's eyes flashed. "Really? So the magical ritual broadcasted by the terrorist lies? You can't believe that a halfblood has tremendous magical reserves and more smarts than the rest of us combined?"

Draco raised his chin, an angry light coming into his eyes as he opened his mouth to respond. Pansy stomped on his foot. 

"Aldon, we want him safe as much as you do. More. We're the silver trio, as you like to call us. But if he needs us, and you vanish all the evidence, how are we going to find him? "

Aldon watched Draco's face until he nodded, then relaxed infinitesimally. 

"I got Edmund to take his potions bag and stash it before I started cleaning up the loose ends. Do you want to help? We can go over it later. "

Draco studied his emotions, feeling only a steely sort of sincerity. He glanced at Pansy, who looked back at him determinedly. 

They both raised their wands. No one would get to Rigel before they could.

* * *

"I do not think the girl can make it. The neurotoxin has entered their system, and the blood loss is excessive. Their magic is untethered."

"Isn't there anything else you can try?"

"Even your mother couldn't do anything boy. Healing is not the purview of vampires."

A pause. 

"Rigel cannot give consent now. But she told you to do what you must. My offer still stands to take her into my clan."

"And there's no chance she'll wake up before then, is there. "

A pause, even more telling than the last. 

A sigh. The vampires stood very still. 

The boy thought of the promises he had made to the feverish girl; to the talk he had had with her cousin, so different without his disguise. 

"Alright. If it's the only way, bite her. "

And Leo could only hope Harriet would forgive him. 


End file.
